Housing — whether it's renting an apartment in a major city, living in student dorms, or financing a home — tends to be a big money suck.

But it doesn't have to be.

From living in company parking lots to making 713-mile commutes overseas, people all over the world have found creative ways to live on the cheap. We aren't recommending you take these tactics ... unless you're ready for a serious lifestyle change of the biggest kind. 

Here are 12 of the more extreme measures people have taken to save on the costs of housing:

SEE ALSO: A 23-year-old Google employee lives in a truck in the company's parking lot and saves 90% of his income

A Google employee lives in a 128-square-foot truck in the company parking lot.

The 23-year-old software engineer's one recurring cost is truck insurance ($121 a month) — and he's saving 90% of his income by avoiding an overpriced San Francisco apartment.

He's used the savings to pay down student loans, get a head start on investing, and set aside money for his goal of traveling the world in a few years.

Read more about Brandon's story.

A San Francisco woman is living on a 136-square-foot sailboat.

Sarah Carter, 23, opted out of settling into an outlandishly priced San Francisco apartment and moved onto a sailboat instead.

She pays for electricity and water, as well as a small monthly docking fee, which includes internet access. Her housing costs add up to about $350 a month — not bad considering the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $3,500 a month.

Read more about Sarah's story.

A college student decided to build a 145-square-foot tiny home instead of pay to live in a dorm.

Joel Weber took one look at the cost of residence halls at the University of Texas at Austin (about $1,135 per month) and knew dorm life wasn't for him.

To save on student housing, he constructed a tiny house in a friend's backyard for less than $15,000. He now pays nothing in rent and plans to graduate debt-free.

Read more about Joel's story.

It's been three years since I made the leap from successful accountant to entrepreneur.

Before making the jump I read quotes from successful leaders to motivate myself.

Here are some of the quotes that inspired me then and some more recent ones that have inspired me since.

Whether you’ve just started a company or have been running one for awhile, there is a lot you can learn from some of the most successful CEOs.

This list compiles some of the best advice out there from CEOs on success, working with your team, becoming a CEO, being a CEO and dealing with customers as a CEO.

Every quote has helped me become a much better leader myself.

Here's to becoming the best leaders and CEOs that we can be.

SEE ALSO: 30 inspiring quotes from super-successful people that every professional should read

On success: Brian Chesky, Airbnb

“When you start a company, it's more an art than a science because it's totally unknown. Instead of solving high-profile problems, try to solve something that's deeply personal to you. Ideally, if you're an ordinary person and you've just solved your problem, you might have solved the problem for millions of people.”

On success: John Stumpf, Wells Fargo

“I never set out to be CEO. I always set out to be a good team member, a good colleague.”

On success: Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz

“Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly. If you are CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.”

So travelers don’t dread flying, especially during long-haul itineraries, airlines are improving experiences.

One way (let’s be honest, our favorite way) is through expanded and enhanced wine programs. 

Below, explore the cream of the crop. 

SEE ALSO: 5 myths about wine that just aren't true

Etihad Airways

Etihad’s uber-exclusive The Residence beverage menu is based on that of First Class but can be altered according to the specific tastes. Guests can even bring aboard their favorite wine or vintage. To handle the best wine, the Etihad Butler, who attends to those in The Residence, has been trained at the Savoy Butler Academy in London, which includes wine and beverage service. In First and Business classes, Etihad offers wines selected by a team of independently-qualified sommeliers. 

Qantas

Under the guidance of Australian celebrity chef Neil Perry, Qantas First Class travelers enjoy a choice of 12 main courses, or an eight-course tasting menu made with sustainable and locally sourced produce paired with wine and served by Qantas’ trained cabin staff. Wine, Champagne and spirits selected for flights and lounges are made The Qantas Rockpool Sommeliers, a new team of somms and mixologists from Perry’s Rockpool Restaurant Group. The Group includes the Head of Sommeliers Australia, David Lawler, and one of only two Master Sommeliers in Australia, Sebastian Crowther.

Virgin Atlantic

The breadth of Virgin’s wine Upper Class program is broad and far reaching. In addition to wine perks like pairings and guided wine tasting tutorials via the in-flight entertainment system, onboard wine selections are made by a tasting panel lead by Berry Bros. and Rudd’s Wine Director Mark Pardoe, a Master of Wine. Upper Class wine selections change every quarter, with three diverse reds and three whites chosen to complement menu changes, and Virgin doesn’t shy away from lesser known styles and vintages. When Virgin launched its new Dreamliner 787 aircrafts, they began serving sparkling wine from English winery Hambledon Vineyard. Grown and produced in Hampshire, Meon Hill Grand Reserve was specifically selected to complement the cabin pressure and humidity of the 787 cabin and has been found to stay bubbly for longer. 

I was a broken record. For years, I said that it would be impossible for Chinese carmakers to crack into the US market, following the example of the Japanese and the South Koreans.

I had good justification for this extreme view: there's no room.

Simply put, there's was no market share to take in the US. And the old game of coming in with a great car in a segment that had been neglected or abjured — fuel-sipping Hondas in the 1970s, reliable family sedans in the 1980s, small SUVs in the 1990s, hybrid drivetrains in the 2000s — wasn't going to work.

Competing on price, as Hyundai and Kia had, wasn't really an option, either, as all the automakers selling cars in America had greatly improved their offerings on that front. You no longer needed to spend very much to get a lot of car.

Then in the midst of the financial crisis, Ford decided to streamline itself and shed its premium brands.

Geely makes its move

Among these were Volvo — the no-nonsense, yet romantic Swedish brand beloved by Los Angeles hipsters and hidebound preppies. A rare opportunity presented itself to international car makers with aims to enter the US market.

Auto brands almost never go up for sale. More often, they fade away — or are swiftly executed. When Ford was selling Volvo, GM was also trying to unload Hummer, Saturn, and Saab. 

Enter Geely, a major Chinese automaker that jumped at the chance to buy a luxury brand, paying almost $2 billion for it in 2010.

Since then, we've been waiting to see what a Chinese-built car from a Swedish brand would be like. When one finally landed on American shores, I was especially intrigued.

For now, the S60 sedan is the only Chinese-made car currently on sale in America, until the Buick Envision arrives later this year.

When we sampled a 2016 S60 Inscription "Platinum" late last year. Business Insider's Ben Zhang lent an assist, driving it in sporty fashion, while I used the car as a limo to chauffeur around a bunch of tweenage friends of my daughter for a weekend.

Here's what we thought:

The S60 has a pleasing, unobtrusive stance that says, "I'm new" without saying "I'm not a Volvo." The "Seashell Metallic" paint job also looked very much at home in the New Jersey suburbs in late autumn.

Solid, simple, dependable. All very Volvo, right down to the fuss-free grille and the familiar Volvo badge. But not stodgy, either. The S60 has a more-or-less contemporary appearance, far sleeker than the brick-like Volvos of yore.

In case you thought it was a Toyota Camry.

Whether it's your salary or your cable bill, a lot of life is up for negotiation. 

Fortunately for you, there are plenty of psychological tricks that can help you get what you want — especially when you start out as the person with less power.

Here, we rounded up some of the most practical and creative science-backed negotiating strategies.

SEE ALSO: Science says these 9 tactics will help you win any argument

Know your context.

Is the negotiation one-shot or long-term?

In "The Mind and the Heart of the Negotiator," Kellogg management professor Leigh Thompson notes that the interaction between a customer and the waitstaff at a highway roadside diner is one of the few one-shot negotiations that happen in life — there's little chance that patron or staff will see each other again. 

But every other negotiation is long-term, with employment negotiations as a primary example. If it's long-term, you need to manage not only monetary value, but the impression you're making.

Make the first offer.

It makes use of the anchoring effect.

If you start high, the hiring manager may adjust the figure down slightly. But that's typically a stronger position than starting low and trying to negotiate up.

"Whoever makes the first offer essentially drops an anchor on the table," Thompson tells Business Insider."I might say that your opening offer is ridiculous, but nevertheless, unconsciously, I've been anchored."

Make an aggressive offer.

Columbia University negotiation scholar Adam Galinsky says that people are overly cautious when making first offers. 

On HBS Working Knowledge, Galinsky likens negotiating a salary to selling a house: 

Take the perspective of the seller: more extreme first offers lead to higher final settlements...

High-anchor offers lead buyers to focus on a negotiated item's positive attributes. In addition, an aggressive first offer allows you to offer concessions and still reach an agreement that's much better than your alternatives.

In contrast, a nonaggressive first offer leaves you with two unappealing options: Make small concessions or stand by your demands.

Taiwan's marine corps' "Road to Heaven," is the final stage of a grueling 10-week amphibious training program. In order to become "frogmen," candidates must crawl 164 feet over jagged, porous, coral rocks in a pair of shorts.

In the slides below, see what these recruits go through to earn their place among Taiwan's elite troops.

SEE ALSO: Watch the insane knife training South Korean special forces go through

The "Road to Heaven" starts with a hard fall from standing to planking position. The fall looks to be tough on the elbows, but immediately after the recruits begin to crawl through the sharp rocks on the points of their knees and elbows.

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In some ways, the training simulates a landing on a rocky beach, but it appears to function mainly as a test in which the trainees must will themselves to conquer pain. "I don't fear pain!" the recruits shout as they cross the razor-sharp rocks.

The path has ten stopping points, and at each one the recruits must stop and perform an exercise.

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South America is an underrated fast-food paradise. 

The continent has some unique restaurant chains that serve Japanese food, Middle Eastern cuisine, calzones, and more.

Here are a few South American fast food chains that should come to the US.

SEE ALSO: 21 crazy McDonald's menu items you can't get in America

NOW WATCH: We tried the new value menus at McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's — and the winner is clear

California Burrito Company

Countries: Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay

Why it's great:California Burrito Company claims that its Tex-Mex style food does not contain added sugar, oils, artificial colors, or flavors. It promotes its fresh ingredients.

Signature item: The Surfer Burrito.

Pasquale Sanguchería

Country: Peru

Why it's great: Pasquale's serves a variety of burgers, sandwiches, and meat plates. It's known for its Peruvian sauces such as ajillo, huancaina, and carretillera.

Signature item: A grilled chicken sandwich loaded with fried plantains, fried egg, lettuce and tomato. 

Doggis

Country: Chile

Why it's great: Doggis is a hot dog chain in Chile that tops its dogs with wild combinations such as mayonnaise, salsa, ranch, guacamole or queso. 

Signature item: The Crispy Dog, which is Doggis' version of the chili dog. 

As "Deadpool" looks to dominate the box office for a second straight weekend, let's put our focus on a new movie out this weekend you should definitely pay attention to.

"The Witch" is a 1630s-set horror film that has been stunning audiences since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015.

The trailer has been talked about for months on social media, and tracking indicates it could make $10 million in its opening weekend on a $1 million budget. On Friday, the masses will finally get to see it.

A Puritan family living in the woods of New England is disrupted when the father leaves and the mother and five children are left to look over things only to come across strange occurrences like crops dying and one child seemingly possessed.

Critics say this one is not to be missed. Here are some reasons why.

SEE ALSO: The one thing everyone can learn from the success of "Deadpool"

The mix of family and superstition is terrifying.

As Variety puts it, the movie, a directorial debut for Robert Eggers, is "a strikingly achieved tale of a mid-17th-century New England family’s steady descent into religious hysteria and madness."

While Time writes: "'The Witch' is partly the story of a family torn apart by mysterious evil, but like any folktale, its true function is to nose around deeper, murkier anxieties." 

Along with the scares, there's some amazing photography.

"It comes as no surprise to learn that the two most important influences on Eggers here were Kubrick's 'The Shining' and Bergman's 'Cries and Whispers'; from the former come the visual style and the sense of a place possibly haunted long ago, from the latter the spectacle of incipient madness overtaking women,"the Hollywood Reporter writes.

The Guardian adds: "The picture looks as if it were shot using only available light and if that means some moments come off dark, we’re only just as spooked as the characters."

The unknown lead gives a phenomenal performance.

Anya Taylor-Joy plays the teenage daughter of the family, whom they turn on for allegedly being a witch, an explanation for the weird occurrences. Expect to hear more about her, as she's a star on the rise. 

As The Daily Beast puts it: "The real discovery here is British actress Anya Taylor-Joy, whose open expressiveness is all the more marvelous when she’s forced to go from pious obedience to desperate self-preservation to orgiastic release ..."

Archive.org is an incredible resource that has saved countless pieces of media from being lost to time. Essentially a library of the old internet, the website has made wide collections of art, movies, and music available to anyone with access to a computer and internet connection.

Last year, over 2,400 old-school games were added to the media collection, and they're all playable right from within your web browser. Below are some of the most beloved games from an era before the internet, a time before the wide adoption of computers with graphic interfaces.

Sure, the controls are a little clunky, but it beats having to keep track of a floppy disk.

"The Oregon Trail"

One of the first video games that was widely played, "Oregon Trail" introduced many children in the 20th century to the idea of traveling in the wilderness, and the word "dysentery."

"Prince of Persia"

A far cry from current entries in the franchise, the original "Prince of Persia" represents old-school platforming at its finest.

"Sim City"

One of the first games that essentially let you play God, "Sim City" gave you the reins to a city. Build it up, destroy it — the choice is yours.

We can't all be 007. But at least we can get close by picking up a piece of the smooth-operating spy's kit. 

Christie's is auctioning off a selection of the props and costumes used by actor Daniel Craig and the rest of the cast of 2015's "Spectre", the latest addition to the Bond ouevre. There's both a live auction and an online one; bidding online started on February 17 and closes on February 23.

All proceeds will be going towards Doctors Without Borders and other charitable groups, including the United Nations Mine Action Service, the Danish Refugee Council, and One to One Children's Fund.

It won't come cheap, but you'll know you've made it when you serve your date a perfectly chilled martini — shaken, not stirred — in the very same glasses from which Craig and his costar Léa Seydoux sipped their own cocktails. 

Check out some of the agent-approved items up for grabs, below.

SEE ALSO: Miami is a billionaire homebuyer's paradise — these are some of its most important luxury condos and mansions

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Live bidding in London will start at $5,700 on this gold ring, a critical piece in the "Spectre" plot, that was worn by the villain Oberhauser (played by actor Christoph Waltz). The ring is 9 carat yellow gold, with a 7 tentacle octopus logo imprinted in it.

It doesn't get much more dapper than this two-piece dinner suit by designer Tom Ford, worn by Daniel Craig with a red carnation in the lapel while wooing his romantic match. It's estimated to go for as much as $42,750.

This is a prototype Omega Seamaster 300 wristwatch worn by Craig as Bond. It has a black dial with luminous hands, and a circular stainless steel case with transparent back. It's estimated to sell for above $21,000.

In January, Mattel unveiled three new body types, seven new skin tones, and 18 different eye colors and hairstyles for Barbie. Now, 24-year-old Haneefah Adam imagines a Barbie who wears hijabs.

The Nigerian Master's graduate has made modest outfits for the world's best-selling doll, including a cheetah abaya and a plaid hijab.

Take a look at a few of her designs, which Adam showcases on her Instagram.

So far, the 'Hijarbie' Instagram features Barbie in 20 different Muslim outfits, like this bright yellow ensemble.

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Adam came up with the idea a few months ago, after looking at the popular Barbie Style Instagram. She felt dissatisfied there wasn't a doll that dressed like her, she told Al Jazeera.

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 Source: Al Jazeera

So she decided to do something about it, and designed floral hijabs and handpainted abayas for Barbie...

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Women aren't alone in facing a societal pressure to look good. In a new project inspired by journalist Esther Honig as well as last year's female-focused "Perceptions of Perfection,"UK-based online doctor service Superdrug sent out a challenge to freelance designers around the world to make a male photographer's picture look more attractive, as spotted on BuzzFeed.

"Men suffer equally with women around low body confidence as many strive to attain a standard of 'attractiveness,'" Denise Hatton, chief executive of YMCA England, said in the study. It is "often unobtainable and, as this report shows, driven by cultural perceptions and advertising ideals."

The Superdrug team received responses from 19 different countries around the world, from Nigeria to Indonesia. Some of the designers in countries like Australia kept the photographer in the picture looking pretty much the same, while others in Egypt or the US made him look almost unrecognizable.

Keep reading to see how 19 designers from around the world envision male beauty:

Here was the untouched image of the New York photographer who agreed to have his picture sent around the world. The Superdrug team sent it to freelance graphic designers with the message: "Photoshop and retouch this man to make him more attractive to the people of your country."

Eleven women and eight men responded from 19 countries and across six continents. South Africa's designer gave the male photographer defined abs.

The designers were all freelancers, and Superdrug did not disclose how much they were paid for their work. Here, Colombia trimmed the photographer's waistline and gave him a tan.

If you could game the system, would you do it?

Users on question-and-answer website Quora recently shared their “best” unethical life hacks that could score you everything from free Chipotle to major savings at grocery stores.

But be warned: These hacks are uniformly unethical. Some veer into fraud. They should be regarded as informational and for entertainment purposes rather than as actual suggestions. You shouldn't do them. If you do them, you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Keep reading to see the 17 unethical life hacks.

"Buy an appliance that's identical to the one you broke, swap them out, and then return the broken appliance for a refund."

- Jay B.

Take advantage of “grace periods” in ticket-entry car garages.

“Most of these garages will have a grace period so that if you pull in but you didn’t really ‘park,’ you can leave and pay nothing. […]

"Next time you park in one of these garages, grab a ticket like normal and go park. When you’re ready to leave, pull your car close to the entrance, and go push the button to get a fresh entrance ticket, time stamped to that moment (when you’re ready to leave). Then, just go to the exit and put your brand new ticket in the machine or hand it to the person. If you’re within the grace period, you will be charged nothing and you can leave. […]

"Even if you’re a few minutes over, you’re paying for minutes rather than hours or days."  

- Anonymous

Weigh all of your fruit as apples at the self-checkout station.

“Go to a self-checkout and weigh [everything] as apples. If you're worried about getting caught if someone checks, ring up organic [apples] as regular [apples], fuji apples as red delicious, etc. Voila, your grocery bill went down.” - Leigh C.

It turns out that eating on $2 a day is more than possible.

I know because I tried it in January. I was inspired by a young Elon Musk, who challenged himself to a minimal food budget as a teenager to see if he had what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

I don't recommend this tedious lifestyle if you can help it (and neither does Musk), but if you decide to take the "Elon Musk challenge"— or if you're looking to lower your monthly grocery bill — here are my nine best tips.

SEE ALSO: I took the 'Elon Musk Challenge' and spent only $2 a day on food for a month — and it was easier than I expected

1. Where you shop matters.

Luxury or organic grocery stores are out of the question — that's obvious. I also learned to stay away from certain, major supermarket chains. During week one, I popped into Gristedes and Food Emporium to do a bit of price comparison. While I didn't look at many products, there seemed to be enough of a price discrepancy between them and my go-to spot: the famously affordable Trader Joe's. Pasta, for example, cost about $1.60 at Gristedes (compared to $.99 at Trader Joe's) — and with a $2-a-day budget, every cent matters.

If you have an accessible Aldi, that chain tends to be even cheaper than Trader Joe's. Also, if I were to do it all over, I would've looked for steals at local markets, which I've heard have unbeatable prices.

2. Use cash.

When you have to stick to a tight budget, ditching your plastic cards for cash can make a world of difference. For one, you get a better idea of exactly how much money you're spending and how much you have remaining in your budget. Plus, there's something about physically handing over bills — watching your money disappear right before your eyes — that causes you to value it more.

At the start of January, I set aside exactly $62 in cash. After every trip to the grocery store, I would count my bills and ensure I was at (or below) my budget. The strategy worked — at the end of the month, I even had $1.07 to spare.

3. Stick to the basics.

Don't expect to whip up complex (or savory) meals. Pasta will quite literally mean plain pasta and oatmeal will quite literally mean plain oats. If you want enough calories to subsist on, flavor enhancers probably won't fit in the budget, so you might as well accept that everything is going to be considerably bland. 

That being said, I did splurge on a $2.99 package of butter. A serving of butter (1 tablespoon) ended up costing just $0.10 and the package lasted the entire month. Plus, it provided a few more calories to my day-to-day diet.

If you're going to make room in the budget for a flavor enhancer, and you'll probably want to, choose something versatile — like butter or salt — that can be used on multiple foods.

4. Don't divide your dollars by days.

I took a big picture approach to the challenge, thinking about how much money I had to spend for the entire month, rather than on a day-by-day basis. It's important to buy for value, which often means buying in bulk, so sometimes I would spend $8 at the grocery store for supplies that would last several days — other days, I spent nothing.

Of course, if you take the big picture approach, you have to be diligent about tracking exactly how much you're spending to ensure you don't run out of money down the road.

5. Accept that you'll be eating the same thing over and over again.

I purchased only nine items during the month-long challenge, which I ate repeatedly. I probably could have switched things up a bit more than I chose to, but the point is, there isn't a huge selection of dirt cheap food products that I wanted to eat.

While I predicted the monotony of eating the same things day after day would wear on me, it never did. One of the reasons I didn't get tired of my staples was because I allowed myself the occasional "luxury item": a sweet potato or egg. Not only did this strategy offer relief from pasta and oats, but it also put luxury into perspective — I've never appreciated something as simple as a baked sweet potato to the degree that I did last month.

6. Buy food you won't get tired of.

If you're going to be eating the same things day in and day out, you have to like what you're eating. I learned this the hard way during the food-stamp challenge. Everyone told me to buy beans — they're cheap and nutritious — but I hate beans, so much that I refused to touch one of the cans I bought, despite dealing with hunger pains and fatigue for most of the week.

I'm don't recommend you buy sirloin steak for the month — you still have to be smart about what you buy — but don't fall into the trap of buying just for the cheap price tag.

A company called FLIR is behind what it says is the world's first thermal-imaging smartphone, called the Cat S60.

No, it's not a phone designed to photograph cats (although you could do that). It's "Cat" as in the brand of rugged construction machines that dig giant holes in the ground.

Putting a heat-vision camera into a $599 smartphone might sound like a gimmick, but we think it's pretty cool — thermal photography has a deep history of great applications.

Here are just a few of the incredible and practical ways the world has used thermographic imaging.

Thermographic cameras record infrared light, which we can often feel as warmth on our skin — but the human eye can't detect. The new Cat S60 camera might be able to take photos like this.

More practically, you might use it to save money and the environment. Contractors already spot and fix leaky insulation with the technology.

Source: FLIR

If you're an electrical engineer, thermal imaging can help reveal where circuitry is heating up, causing inefficiencies, and potentially show-stopping faults.

Source: Optotherm

David Friedeberg is an entrepreneur who figured out how to use the rewards miles he accumulated through traveling and credit card purchases to book an incredible trip — one that took him almost an entire year to complete.

Friedeberg traveled first class on airlines like Qatar Air, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas, filling in some route with business class offerings from Lufthansa, Lan, and others. His trip took him around the world: from Bangkok to Tokyo to Sydney to Cape Town to Dubai to Budapest to Paris to — well, you get the idea.

How did he do it?

On the booking side, Friedeberg took advantage of a “round the world” ticket through British Airways (which calls it a “multi-carrier award”). This allowed him to fly up to 50,000 miles in 16 segments, which he used for his long-haul flights. He filled in the shorter legs with individual flights.

Though recreating exactly what it would have cost him is difficult, Friedeberg estimates he would have had to shell out almost $30,000 for the whole trip — if he were paying cash.

Here are some anecdotes and photos from Friedeberg’s year-long odyssey of monasteries, animals, cars, food, and beautiful beaches.

SEE ALSO: This guy used a frequent-flyer loophole to take a $60,000 trip in a first-class suite on Emirates — here's what it was like

After heading to Europe, Friedeberg flew first class on Thai Airways to Bangkok, Thailand, where he played with baby tigers...

...and big ones too.

In Siem Reap, Cambodia, he was able to bribe security guards to let him up to the top of Angkor Wat. He saw the sunrise by himself and then got lost in the Ta Prohm temple, where "Tomb Raider" was filmed.

Apple is very likely to launch a new 4-inch iPhone this March, and the iPhone 7 will hit shelves this fall. 

Until then, you're still stuck with your years-old device. Perhaps years of use have taken a toll and your phone has a broken screen. Or your battery doesn't last a whole day anymore. But you want to hold out until you can upgrade to the new model. 

Luckily, there are several tweaks and tricks that can help your older phone run like new, at least until the newest one comes out.

Here are a few tips and tricks for getting your phone through its last days: 

SEE ALSO: This is what the 'i' in 'iPhone' stands for

When a new phone is about to come out, Google searches for "slow iPhone" spike, according to Google Trends and the New York Times. So you're not alone if it feels like your phone is dragging.

Turning off Background App Refresh can also help reduce the burden on your phone's processor. An added bonus is that it will give you a few extra minutes of battery life, too.

You'll find the tweak in Settings > General > Background App Refresh. You can also turn off background refresh for individual apps, too. 

There are a few quick software tweaks that might make your phone a bit snappier. First, you should turn off Apple's motion effects.

Find it in Settings > General > Accessibility. Click on Increase Contrast and turn Reduce Transparency off. You'll also want to turn on the Reduce Motion option as well. 

People are flocking to an unlikely destination this month: Death Valley.

Death Valley holds the world record for the hottest recorded temperature on Earth — in 1972, its ground temperatures reached 201 degrees Fahrenheit. 

So, it's not an ideal vacation spot — or even a lunch spot — but this month people are making an exception.

Recently, the valley burst into a beautiful sea of gold and purple flowers that's unlike anything seen in over a decade, when a rare "Super Bloom" covered the valley in 2005.

With a few months left in the rainy season, park rangers are optimistic that more flowers are on their way, making the conditions right for the first Super Bloom in 11 years. But even, right now, the desert is pretty spectacular:

SEE ALSO: NASA just released a jaw-dropping 360 degree photo that makes you feel like you're on Mars

CHECK OUT: 5 mind-blowing feats of superhuman endurance

Thousands of flowers are in bloom, making for a rare sight in Death Valley, this month.

But being a flower in Death Valley is tricky.

Instead of struggling through the extreme heat and dryness throughout most of the year, these desert flowers spend most of their time as dormant seeds in the ground.

The fast-food world exploded at the recent revelation that McDonald's is testing a Chicken McGriddle sandwich.

The new item combines a fried chicken patty and the sweet pancake buns of the McGriddle breakfast sandwich.

Unfortunately, the sandwich is currently available at only 11 McDonald's locations in central Ohio.

Only time — and select Ohioans — will tell if the sandwich has staying power. But we couldn't wait to try it for ourselves, so we decided to construct our own Chicken McGriddle.

SEE ALSO: 13 awesome South American fast-food chains that should come to the US

So how to go about constructing your own Chicken McGriddle? It's pretty simple. First, buy a simple Sausage McGriddle and a Crispy Buttermilk Chicken sandwich.

The humble Sausage McGriddle works best, as there's no egg or cheese to mess with.

After all, it's the buns we're after here. The McGriddle buns are specially formulated with maple-syrup crystals to give a sweet, syrupy flavor without the sticky mess.

Mexico's Attorney General's Office (PGR) has identified seven new criminal organizations that it has identified as cartels for their range of criminal exploits. 

The new organizations are smaller, less entrenched, and are less powerful than the older generation of Mexican cartels, which were massive criminal enterprises.

Instead the new cartels, Insight Crime notes, have largely spawned from mid-ranking members of former Mexican cartels, such as the Zetas. 

Mexico is currently carrying out a "kingpin strategy" against criminal organizations in the country.

The strategy has largely been successful in apprehending the country's top cartel members. However, it has done little to alleviate the underlying conditions which spawned the cartels. As such, the kingpin strategy has done little other than cause the previous Mexican cartels to implode leading to the creation of multiple new criminal organizations. 

We have profiled the seven latest cartels to enter the Mexican criminal scene below. 

SEE ALSO: Here are the powerful Mexican drug cartels that operate in the US

"Cartel del Estado" ("The State Cartel")

The State Cartel operates primarily in the State Mexico, in the center of the country. It draws its income from diverse sources, including charging other organizations for the transport of drugs through its territory, local drug dealing, and kidnapping, the PGR notes.

The State first formed as a faction within the now defunct Familia Michoacana cartel, Insight Crime notes.

The fall of the Familia previously gave rise to a number of gangs, including the Knights Templar cartel.

"Cartel de los Precursores Quimicos" ("The Precursor Chemical Cartel")

The Precursor Chemical Cartel, as its name implies, deals largely with the sourcing and distribution of the precursor chemicals needed for large-scale drug production, PGR writes.

This group's specialization in the dealing of only precursor chemicals is illustrative of the balkanization of the cartels.

Whereas the larger cartels in Mexico would have previously attempted to control all facets of drug production, the implosion of the cartels has allowed the Precursor Chemical Cartel to flourish.

"Cartel de los Mazatlecos" ("Mazatlecos Cartel")

The Mazatlecos Cartel, Insight Crime notes, was first formed by the crippled Beltran Leyva Organization and the Zetas Cartel.

The Mazatlecos was largely a local gang in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, started specifically to disrupt the Sinaloa cartel's operations in their home state.

The Mazatlecos has since grown in power. It's now involved in drug dealing, kidnapping, and extortion. The group also makes use of training camps to prepare its members, and it has large-scale associations with street gangs throughout its areas of operation.